A.R.C.I.O. remembers.... 

​FLIGHT SERGEANT AIR GUNNER 412043

DAVID CLAUDE MELVILLE WALTON 

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David's parents, Eunice May Cranston and Claude David Melville Walton were from the state of Victoria, Australia and were married there in 1914.  David, taking his father's names, was born on 31st August, 1918 in Cremorne, a district of Sydney.  He was later to welcome the arrival of a sister called June Cranston, taking her middle name from her mother's maiden name.

 

David grew up in Sydney and was enrolled with the Cremorne Boy Scout movement when he was a young lad.  He was a keen sportsman, taking part in tennis competitions with the club in Navana and was also involved with rowing at Mosman.  When he began work and at the time of his enlistment, he was employed in the printing department at Consolidated Press in Sydney.

David applied for enlistment with the Royal Australian Air Force on 3rd September 1939 just two days after the outbreak of war in Europe. Before he departed Australia in June of 1941, David had married Joan Constance Curtis in a ceremony that took place in Neutral Bay, Sydney. It is unknown when their baby daughter Jill was born, but when David became the Air Gunner on Kiwi pilot George Goodall Bell's crew, it was agreed that their plane would be called Jill, after David and Joan's young daughter. This was recorded in a letter that George Bell sent home to his mother when he was serving in England. It was dated 27th April 1943.. 

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          "I’ve got a real good crew Mum and we’re the most mixed up crew in the station.  One chap lives in Australia,                   another a Canadian, the others English and of course me N.Z.  They seem to have plenty of faith in me as their               skipper.  We are going to call our kite Jill after the Aussie’s baby daughter.  He showed me some photos of her               and she’s really a swell little babe and isn’t he proud of her.  I was going to call the kite Susie but I knew he                     wanted us to carry the baby’s name on it, he also carries a photo of the baby for luck."

 

Just four months later on the the 24th August, David, now with 78 Squadron, was the Mid-Upper Air Gunner on Halifax BB373 that was returning to RAF Breighton in Yorkshire after a successful, but extremely dangerous bombing raid on the city of Berlin.  David would have been busy, fending off the attacking Luftwaffe on this difficult and long mission to Berlin. Safely over the North sea, news of bad visibility was received and the flight was directed to divert to Leconfield, some 27 kilometres from their base at Breighton.  Now in a circling pattern, awaiting to land at Leconfield, a further update was received to divert to nearby Cranswick. Just a few kilometres from landing, Halifax BB373, named Jill, was in a mid-air collision with returning Halifax JB874.  Both planes crashed into the ground in flames near Hull Bridge, between the village of Tickton and the nearby town of Beverley.  Sadly all eight airmen on board BB373 were killed and six of the seven onboard JB874 also died. An extremely bad night for 78 Squadron, they had lost five aircraft and thirty one airmen.  In total that night, 'JILL' was one of 56 aircraft lost and approximately 380 men who had been killed.  More than 700 parents had lost their sons, wives had lost their husbands and countless children had lost their fathers that night in during the Berlin operational mission. ​

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​David was 24 years old when he died.  His wife Joan was informed of her husband's tragic death at her home in Mosman, Sydney where she lived with baby Jill who was now 13 months old.  Joan took the option of adding an inscription to his gravestone when he was buried at Stonefall Cemetery.  It reads forevermore...  

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DARLING I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

NO POWER IN DEATH CAN TEAR OUR LOVE APART

 

The following year, on the 2nd July 1944, David's beloved wife died. She was just 22 years old. 

 

In a place where his skipper Pilot Officer George Bell can keep a watchful eye on his Air Gunner, David is buried right next to him.  Both David and George are also remembered on a plaque that was placed on the actual crash site by 78 Squadron ​​​​​​​

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    DAVID CLAUDE MELVILLE WALTON IS BURIED IN SECTION C, ROW B, GRAVE  2​